The Ageless One: Beginnings

The Ageless One: His Confession

Doelan took a deep breath as he held the hourglass up, glowing in the light of the bonfire under a bright moon.  At midnight, precisely, it stopped flowing.  Doelan was now fifteen years old, and was no longer ageing.  He would be locked at that age for the rest of his life; an eternity if he was lucky.  In gisler society he was a man, but the words of Erid, the head of the orphanage that Doelan had lived in for so long, came back to him.

You’ll always be that strange, funny, special little child to me, he had said.

Doelan didn’t consider Erid a father figure.  Not really.  But he was an important figure in Doelan’s life all the same.  He was kind to Doelan, like he was kind to all the orphans.  His attention was just divided.  At that moment, looking at Erid clap with the rest of the gislers, he thought of him as one hundredth of a father, because he had to be father to one hundred children. Still, Doelan couldn’t blame Erid for thinking of him as a child.

It didn’t make what Doelan had to do any easier.

Outside the marble cottages of Halhor, in the grass field, Doelan looked at Liri, smiling and clapping for him along with all the others.  Liri was his only friend, but at least no one teased him anymore.  Now many clapped for him, encouraging his ascent from boy to man.

And he knew that if he said what he and Liri needed to say, then he would lose what little respect they had for him.

But Doelan and Liri had agreed.  They would wait until after his birthday, once Doelan was a man.  Then they would be on equal ground, but Doelan knew better.  Doelan couldn’t tell his elders apart, and as far as he could tell he was the same age as they were.  He was their equal, but he knew they wouldn’t see it that way.

You’ll always be that strange, funny, special little child to me.  He would be that strange, funny little child to them forever.

Maybe Liri would have more clout but how were they supposed to say it?  How were they supposed to say that they had been seeing goblins in the village from time to time?  How could they explain about those creatures, the animal skins they saw people wear, or the pickaxes and other tools they carried?  The cave walls?

Who would believe them if they said what they thought, that all the gislers were in an illusion?  That the goblins were using them to work, and they didn’t even know it.  Another thing Doelan didn’t know is what exactly they were being used for, aside from digging as the tools suggested.  Even so, he didn’t want to know, and figured that whatever it was it couldn’t be good.

He remembered when the two of them had figured it out.  Liri, said Doelan.  I honestly think we’re the goblins’ prisoners.  Kept in some sort of illusion so we don’t run away.  Everything we see is false, and I think we’ve all been in goblin caves our whole lives.

I think you’re right, said Liri.  Other people are the only thing that’s real.  We have to tell them, Doelan. 

They did have to tell them.  Doelan didn’t feel any particular connection to any gisler apart from Liri, but Liri felt every bond possible.  Besides, no one deserved this fate any more than the two of them did.  Yes, they had to tell.  He looked at Liri smiling, but behind that smile he saw nervousness.  Both of them knew it would not be easy.

Still, Doelan smiled, doing his best to enjoy his coming of age.  Things were about to change, as everyone knew.  Doelan just wasn’t certain how much.

As he thought these thoughts, a mind that had watched him for so long, also had thoughts.

So this is it.  She thought.  He’s actually going to do this.  I’ll have to be clever to keep the rest from breaking out of the illusion.  First he sees my goblins, then he forgets them, only to see them again, and then that other boy starts seeing goblins too.  This has to end.  They can leave my illusion if they wish, but I won’t let them take the rest with them.